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E-Book Sellers vs. Apple: The War Rages On

Apple's European antitrust probes have ended, and the e-book pricing restrictions are over. What does this mean for Apple and the e-book publishers?

In the following video, Fool analyst Blake Bos talks about the end of antitrust probes regarding Apple (Nasdaq: AAPL) and the e-book industry.

Apple has had a stranglehold on the e-book business. But with the end of the probes, e-book sellers such as Amazon.com (Nasdaq: AMZN) and Barnes & Noble (NYSE: BKS) will be able to sell at lower prices than they had through their agreements with Apple, Blake says.

Amazon now has a 65% market share in e-books, with Barnes & Noble taking 27%.

The e-book industry remains in its early stages worldwide, with the U.S. and U.K. still making up some 50% of the overall market.

The market is growing, up 28% in the past year. But it's still small at $282 million. That's hardly enough to move the needle at companies such as Apple and Google (Nasdaq: GOOG). But for Barnes & Noble, this could be a big opportunity, Blake says.

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